Name of your website?Viewvi.com - share your views with the world
Your name?
Peter Kerr
Your Location (city, etc)
London
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Viewvi is the social community where you can share your views with the world. Users can write views and vote & comment on the views of others. The most popular views are then showcased on the homepage. Users can build networks of friends to see the views of the people like them.
Topics covered include entertainment, sport, science, science fiction, society & lifestyle and politics. So what does the world really think? From the interesting, popular & undeniable through to the downright annoying - you can find it on Viewvi.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
When meeting with friends our discussions always centred around topics we were interested in and passionate about. I thought I could transfer this to the internet in a way that was different than what was already out their.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
I launched my first website about my travels around the world - but it was mainly as a hobby. This is my first real website.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wanted a name that centred on people's views or opinions while also being quite short and memorable.
I wrote up a list of about 1 thousand candidates before settling on www.viewvi.com
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
The things most similar are poll websites and forums. The problem with these is that in polls, users do not need to justify why they think the way the do. In forums there is no way to assess how generally supported people's viewpoints are.
The idea for Viewvi is that people justify their viewpoints and the community then decides it's merit.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The eventual goal for Viewvi is to be the world's source of people's viewpoints. If you consider that wikipedia is the most popular location for reference material I think there is an opportunity to create a similar resource for people's opinions.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
It is very early days, and like all startups the amount of effort required to reach critical mass is quite large.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would spend a lot of money adding integration to other popular web destinations.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Depends on how big really big is. The infrastruture I currently use would allow me to expand up to a point - if it went really really large I would likely have to consider a different arrangement.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
The development effort went fairly well as expected but I was quite surprised at the amount of effort required for promotion. It is certainly not a case of 'If you build it they will come'. But I am finding the learning experience incredibly rewarding.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Overcoming some of the technical challenges. I only have a very small team and we started of with numerous skills gaps which we have had to overcome.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
To date the most successful methods of promotion have been through participation in relevant online forums and also the social site www.reddit.com
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It has actually been running pretty close to expectations
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has been live for 2 months and I will continue to run it as long as it keeping fresh and there is an audience.
What is your website address?
Viewvi.com - share your views with the world
